Guardian
The Guardians are an alien humanoid species. They're presumed extinct since 1 to 2 million years ago.Interview with David Braben - PAX East 2017 - Elite Dangerous Their ancient ruins were first discovered in the Synuefe XR-H D11-102 system on October 27, 3302 by CMDR XDeath. Engineer Ram Tah subsequently requested data scanned from the ruins for further study, and on January 10, 3303, he began providing a decryption program for the data to all Commanders who docked at a station in the Meene system. The decrypted data from the ruins provided significant insights into the history and culture of the Guardians. They were a Type II civilization. History The Guardians evolved as intelligent, nomadic pack hunters that eventually organized themselves into clans. A sudden climate cooling early in the Guardians’ history meant they were forced to settle, develop tools and shelters. They swiftly domesticated animals for food, and had a remarkable understanding of inherited traits. This developed into understanding and manipulation of genetic material, culminating in the cure for many diseases. Technological development varied between each clan, creating inequality and conflict. Conflicts were initially resolved through personal combat between individual clan champions, but the clans later used numbers to overwhelm their opponents, which gave rise to conventional warfare. Weapons development accelerated accordingly, and biological weapons became the Guardians' weapons of choice, leading to an arms race focused on making new biological agents and countermeasures.https://canonn.science/codex/guardians-data-history/ http://remlok-industries.fr/1030/the-guardians-lore/?lang=en The catalyst for the advent of the modern Guardian society was a major conflict: an alliance of a number of northern clans from the northern region of the main continent on the Guardians' homeworld fought a swift war of global conquest. This brought the entire Guardian species under the northern clans' leadership. It gave rise to an enduring system of co-operative city states. There followed a great period of peace, growth and advancement, resulting in the first ark ships sent to colonise alien worlds, faster than light communication, hyperspace travel. Computers were developed and commonly used by Guardians for generations, and later linked together by an interstellar communication and computing system called the Monolith Network. The Guardians soon developed artificial intelligence to manage the monolith network, and neural implants to access it. The Monolith Network became the heart of the Guardians' society and triggered an Age of Information. The rapid pace of the technological revolution resulted in new forms of inequality that threatened the very fabric of society. Unfortunately, the Guardians were unable to muster a unified response to these changes, which widened the gap between those who accepted the changes and those who resisted them. The politicians were the first to react to the changing social landscape, but soon the resistance to the technological revolution took on a religious overtone. The alienation of many non-implanted Guardians gave rise to a religious abolitionist movement. The abolitionists were rooted in spiritual traditions and rejected the development of neural implants and artificial intelligence. The abolitionists seized control of the homeworld, and exiled supporters of a liberated AI. War inevitably followed, and increasingly automated weapons irradiated the Guardians’ planet, forcing the creation of protective shield domes. As these eventually fell, so did the last of the Guardians. The Guardians are presumed to be extinct since 1 to 2 million years ago and people are discovering the exact reasons why that happened. Thargoid War After the war with the Thargoid began, the Guardians were forced to make a partial retreat. They were reluctant to take up arms with the Thargoids and kept communicating with them. Eventually they gained enough understanding of the Thargoid language to communicate. It didn't benefit the Guardians much, because the Thargoids were determined to continue hostilities. The Guardians were forced to employ more aggressive methods to address the Thargoid threat.Guardian Codex 3 Decrypted. Thargoid Log - Unsuccessful Truce Culture From a young age the Guardians were raised communally with shared values of co-operation and social responsibility. Laws were based not on individual rights but on the responsibility of the individual to the community, and each Guardian enforced and followed these laws. There was expectation for everyone to take part in the scientific, cultural and administrative tasks, and it seemed that they gained great satisfaction from these collaborative practices. They had a rich cultural life with evidence of art, interactive theatre, and music all forming part of their social duties. Architecture was inspired by geometry, and used to illustrate relations between the Guardians and the world around them. They felt a spiritual connection to the environment, and a collective responsibility to maintain it. These spiritual traditions eventually formed the basis of their religion, together with rejection of the development of neural implants and artificial intelligence.https://canonn.science/codex/guardians-data-culture/ Biology The Guardians had red skins, sharp cutting ridges on their forelimbs, small faces, and round, dark eyes adapted to bright sunlight. The lower gravity and higher temperature on their planet meant they were taller and more slender than humans. They are also more agile and resilient than humans, with greater auditory and visual senses, but more vulnerable to cold and with a limited olfactory sense. They were carnivorous, and hunting, killing, and serving meat remained an important social ritual. They had two distinct sexes and sex had an important role as a recreational as well as procreational activity. Their anatomy enabled them to become temporarily sterile at will, allowing for population control and fewer taboos around sexual activity. Procreation was a matter of personal choice in Guardian society, but all Guardians were required to become a parent at least once in their lives in order to ensure the continuation of their genetic line. The gestation period for Guardians was lengthy to allow substantial development of the young prior to birth, and infants were effectively helpless for a period after delivery.https://canonn.science/codex/guardians-data-biology/ There is evidence of a genetic break corresponding with the geographical north-south divide of clans on the Guardians' homeworld. The northern clans are thought to have suffered greater hardship early on, possibly leading to a stronger breed, which allowed them to conquer the southern clans. Members of the northern clans also had a redder skin pigmentation, suggesting a racial element to the genetic division. Language The formal basis for the Guardians' communication was visual rather than verbal, a distinction that arose very early in their evolutionary development. The Guardians used a single language across their species comprised of written, spoken and gestural forms.https://canonn.science/codex/guardians-data-language/ The written language is comprised of glyphs representing whole words. The glyphs evolved from sign language that the Guardians developed while hunting to communicate stealthily. The glyphs retained characteristics of the physical form in their format, and the use of movement. Spoken language used similar sounds to human speech, and altered meaning through word order and tonality. There are some emotive concepts present in speech, not present in the written form, suggesting a more social role to vocal communication. It is believed the Guardians spoke with accents and regional dialects as there are regional variations in the sounds of their words. Technology The Guardians were a highly intelligent species and mastered a number of technologies. Their understanding and manipulation of genetics was far more advanced than human science. They used it to eradicate disease, address environmental concerns, and create entirely new organisms for food and war. The Guardians had the capacity for sophisticated flight technology, but also possessed an ecologically-conscious philosophy that precluded widespread usage of technologies they viewed as damaging to the environment. This led the Guardians to rely on less-advanced machines such as dirigibles, and refrain from pursuing the manufacture of rockets, which had been deemed harmful. When the Guardians first attempted space travel, they instead used large electromagnetic launchers to catapult ships into space. Pilots and passengers rode in breathable gel cocoons that helped them withstand the extreme G-forces experienced at launch, and doubled as hibernation pods during long journeys. The electromagnetic launchers were not only used for civil purposes, but also for launching kinetic projectile weapons. Before they developed faster-than-light technology, the Guardians constructed three large arks for their first interstellar colonies, similar to the generation ships employed by humans.https://canonn.science/codex/guardians-data-technology/ Defensively, they could deploy city-sized shields capable of withstanding significant damage. Their strong communal and ecological focus meant that their flight technologies were inferior to ours, only employing a limited variety of airships and spacecraft, and avoiding the use of rocketry or explosives on their homeworld. The Monoliths are the remains of a species-wide, interstellar, faster than light communications network covering all aspects of Guardian life. With the invention of neurological implants and artificial intelligence they could share and manipulate thoughts and ideas directly though this network. It was used for practically all of their society's communication, regardless of importance. The network was designed with very few restrictions, in keeping with the Guardians' predilection for sharing knowledge. There was no evidence that separate networks were used for military of administrative communication, as humans developed. This meant Guardian society was extremely open, but this made it significantly more vulnerable when social divisions arose. The neurological implanted Guardians were reaching a technological symbiosis with artificial intelligence, and a technological singularity. That was before the rise of the religious abolitionists who opposed the neural implants and artificial intelligence. Legacy There are some possibilities as to the current situation of the Guardians. The second Guardian civil war raged on for over a hundred years. All the Guardians other than those who had been exiled a century earlier were dying. The exiled Guardians had implants and were supporters of a liberated AI. Descendants of these exiles may still exist, but in 1 to 2 million years they could have changed beyond recognition or gone extinct as well.Guardians History 15Guardians History 19Guardians History 21 Maybe the AI virtual entities reached independence and persevered.Guardians History 17 Ancient Ruins The Guardians built many structures on airless planets millions of years ago. These are known as Ancient Ruins. These monoliths and earthworks are the remains of a species-wide, interstellar, faster than light communications network. The first Ancient Ruins were discovered in October 3302. All sites hold data packages which can be decrypted to reveal information about the Guardians' biology, history, culture, language, and technology. Guardian Structures Discovered in February 3304, Guardian Structures were also built on various airless worlds. Compared to Ancient Ruins, Guardian Structures feature almost no earthworks and exhibit different architectural features. Several Guardian Structures are patrolled by hostile Guardian Sentinels, and also feature functional Ancient Data Terminals. Hybrid Technology Since the discovery of Guardian civilization and its ruins, human specialists have successfully grafted Guardian tech into human-made devices to create powerful new hybrid weapons and modules. These include the Guardian Gauss Cannon, Guardian Plasma Charger, Guardian Shard Cannon, and Guardian Hybrid Power Plant. Beginning in February 3304, certain Technology Brokers, such as the one found at Jameson Memorial, were willing to make these items available for sale to pilots in exchange for Materials. Videos The_Guardians_Recap_-_Elite_Dangerous_-_ESRB_Teen Elite_Dangerous_-_Epic_History_of_The_Guardians Gallery Guardians_Ancient_Ruins.jpg|Ancient Ruins of the Guardians Ancient-Ruins-SRV.png|Ancient Ruins and an SRV Ancient-Ruins-Prai-Hypoo-GF-E-c10.png|Ancient Ruins in Prai Hypoo GF-E c10 Guardians-Ancient-Relic-Monolith.png|Guardians Ancient Relic Monolith Guardians-Active-Obelisk.png|Guardians Active Obelisk Beyond-Guardian-weapon-art-2.png|Guardian Gauss Cannon Beyond-Guardian-weapon-art-3.png|Guardian Shard Cannon (front view) Beyond-Guardian-weapon-art-1.png|Guardian Shard Cannon (rear view) References External Links *Canonn - The Guardians Data Entry Library Category:Alien life Category:Lore Category:Species Category:Guardian